DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS

Uruguay will resume diplomatic relations with Cuba after a 21-year lapse. A Foreign Ministry statement Thursday said the move was in line with "the desire to strengthen links of friendship and cooperation between the two peoples and governments." President Julio Maria Sanguinetti promised at his inauguration in March that the step would be taken. The United States pressured other Latin American nations to break ties with Havana after Cuba was kicked out of the Organization of American States in 1962. Uruguay did in 1964 but was one of the last to do so.